WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (Aug. 3, 2010) -- Swim, bike, run: the three events
that make up the modern-day triathlon. Watkins Glen, Montreal, Salt Lake
City: the final three stops on the 2010 GRAND-Am Rolex Sports Car Series
calendar. Max Angelelli, Ricky Taylor, Travis Jacobson: the SunTrust
Racing threesome that prepped for the season's final three races at
Sunday's Tri Indy triathlon in downtown Indianapolis.

With Saturday night's Rolex Series Crown Royal 200 at The Glen on tap
for Angelelli and Taylor, co-drivers of the No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara
of Wayne Taylor Racing, and Jacobson, the team's technical director, the
week started with a true test of physical endurance, mental toughness,
encouragement, and a little trash talking.

Sunday marked the first-ever triathlon for Taylor, who celebrated his
21st birthday two days later, and there were brief bouts of nervous
anticipation in the weeks leading up to it. Nonetheless, he made his
way through the Tri Indy sprint distance event involving a 500-meter
swim, 20-kilometer bike ride and five-kilometer run with the kind of
efficiency and determination that already has made him a race-winning
and two-time pole-winning driver behind the wheel of the SunTrust Racing
machine in just his first season with the team. Taylor finished the
sprint distance in one hour, 13 minutes, placing him 77th out of more
than 500 competitors.

Meanwhile Jacobson, who has run numerous triathlons and competed in
Tri Indy's Olympic distance event that involved a 1,500-meter swim,
40-kilometer bike ride, and 10-kilometer run, put in a solid effort of
his own.

And where was Angelelli during all of this? He was snapping photos,
encouraging Taylor from the sidelines, and trading jibes with his
technical director while vowing to beat Jacobson in next year's Olympic
distance event. Angelelli, forever the fierce competitor but also
self-acknowledged class clown in the SunTrust camp, claims his teammates
purposely told him too late about this year's triathlon so he would not
have sufficient time to train for it and beat them.

Saturday night, however, Angelelli expects to be right in the thick
of battle during the Rolex Series' annual two-hour sprint race around
Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International's 2.45-mile, 11-turn NASCAR road
circuit. He and Taylor are coming off a splendid runner-up finish at
New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville two weekends ago, their fourth
podium of the season. Saturday, they hope to put a dent in the hefty
27-point lead in the championship enjoyed by the No. 01 Chip Ganassi
Racing with Felix Sabates BMW Riley of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas over
the second-place SunTrust team.

This year's Crown Royal 200 at The Glen moves for the first time from
its traditional Friday-night slot to Saturday, immediately following the
NASCAR Nationwide Series Zippo 200 at The Glen. Practice for the Crown
Royal 200 begins Friday morning with qualifying set for 5:40 p.m. EDT.
Race time Saturday is 6 p.m., with live television coverage on SPEED, as
well as live radio coverage on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius
NASCAR Radio Channel 128 beginning at 5:45 p.m. Live timing and scoring
during all on-track sessions can be found at www.grand-am.com.

Max Angelelli, co-driver of the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara:

You're down to the final three-race stretch of the season a solid second
in the championship, and you're coming off a strong runner-up finish at
Watkins Glen in June's six-hour race. How do you feel about heading back
there?

"I always look forward to going back to Watkins Glen. It is definitely
one of my favorite places to race. The championship is not looking
possible for us and a lot of people in the series. It's pretty much down
to one team, actually. But, it looks like there is a fight for second
place in the championship and I expect it will be pretty intense. The
best part of it is that these last three tracks we will be going to,
starting with this weekend, are very favorable for us. What I like the
best about the next three tracks is that they are all very favorable for
overtaking, which makes your life as a driver much more exciting. The
final outcome of the race won't necessarily be dictated by where you
qualify or what kinds of things happen in the beginning of the race."

For the first time ever, the sprint race at The Glen will be run on
Saturday instead of Friday. What do you think about the change in race
nights?

"I think it's going to be a little like what they've done at Daytona
by moving our race in July from Thursday night to Saturday before the
NASCAR (Sprint Cup) race. There will be an exciting NASCAR (Nationwide
Series) race on Saturday afternoon, which means there will already
be a lot of fans in the stands all having a good time and enjoying
themselves. I want to tell all of those fans to stay in their seats
after the NASCAR race because they will see a spectacular GRAND-AM race.
It always is that way on the short track at Watkins Glen. I'm really
looking forward to that."

You travelled back to the U.S. a week early and got to take part in
a little extracurricular activity with your teammates before heading
over to The Glen. Did you have fun at the triathlon in Indianapolis on
Sunday?

"It was a lot of fun. I am very proud of the guys. It was Ricky's first
triathlon and he was very worried about the swim, in particular. But
he did a great job. I only wish I could have done it with them, but I
think, on purpose, they didn't tell me until too late that they were
going to do it, probably because they were afraid they would have lost
to me. I wouldn't have had the proper time to train this year. But next
year, I will find out the date and I will be there to do it with them
and I will show them how it is supposed to be done. I spent my entire
youth in a swimming pool, racing every weekend for 10 years, so I feel
like I have a lot to show them. All I have to say to them right now is,
just wait till next year."

Ricky Taylor, co-driver of the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara:

Your overall thoughts heading into Watkins Glen, particularly coming off
of your runner-up finish in the June six-hour race, and your solid race
there with Beyer Racing last August?

"Based on my experience with the SunTrust team this year, I think the
car should be well-suited to the short track at The Glen this weekend.
It's been really efficient, aero-wise, and the key to this race is
trimming things out as much as possible but still allow us to get
through the high-speed corners as quickly as possible. It's really a
fast track, the fastest we go to, for sure, average speed-wise. It's a
good 8 mph faster than Daytona, and about 13 mph faster than the long
course at The Glen. The percentage of straightaway to corners has us
trim the car out a lot more and, because it's a sprint race, we need to
make sure we can pass people and hold them off. It makes it a little
more difficult to drive, but I think our car is pretty efficient and we
should be okay. Last year, we had probably the best car we had all year
with the Beyer team. We led the most laps, thanks in large part to pit
strategy, but even regardless of the pit strategy, we had a pretty good
pace. It was cool to be able to stay out in front for that many laps
(22). We finally had to pit toward the end and that was it. But it was
still a great experience."

How was your first triathlon experience on Sunday in Indianapolis?

"I didn't know how it was going to work, putting all three things
together. I'm used to running and, for the longest time, that's all I
ever did for my cardio. And I took up biking as part of my training not
too long ago. It was the swim that had me all nervous, but it turned
out to be not a huge problem. Travis (Jacobson, technical director) and
Adam (Banet, data acquisition engineer) talked me into doing the sprint
distance this year because they do triathlons all the time. Adam ended
up not being able to go to the triathlon at the last minute. When we
got there Sunday morning, it felt a little intimidating because there
were so many people, and so many nice bikes and other equipment. It
was definitely hard to get through, but it also turned out to be a lot
of fun. Next year, we'll hopefully all do the Olympic distance -- Max
included. He was a big help this year, but he also did a lot of trash
talking."

Wayne Taylor, owner of the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara team:

With five podiums, including a pair of victories, in your previous seven
sprint races at Watkins Glen, are you feeling pretty confident about the
SunTrust team's chances this weekend?

"Like I always say when we go back to The Glen, it's been our best
racetrack. Although it's the short track this weekend, we've had quite a
lot of success there, overall. We had a good car again on the big track
in the six-hour race in June, but I'm not exactly sure how good the
car will be this weekend until we get out there. It hasn't been quite
the fastest the last couple of years in the sprint race, which doesn't
make complete sense. But Travis (Jacobson, technical director), Simon
(Hodgson, team manager) and the guys have done such a good job this year
in preparing the car, I'm certain they'll get everything 100-percent
right. We need to have three more very strong finishes to finish the
season. The championship is pretty much a foregone conclusion, but we
have a nine-point lead over third place and we have to keep finishing
ahead of those guys to clinch second place. That has become our goal."

You and the team had a little bit of fun up in the Indianapolis area
last weekend, with Ricky, Travis and Max at the triathlon Sunday in
Indianapolis, and you, Max, Ricky and your younger son Jordan at Putnam
Park on Monday. How was it?

"Yeah, we gave ourselves a bit of a treat on Monday at Putnam Park
(Road Course in Plainfield, Ind.). We were intending to run our old
Cadillac LMP02 that we ran at Le Mans back in 2002. We restored the car
completely, and it's the first time we were going to run it since then,
but it didn't quite work out. But while we were there, we also made good
on a promise we made to Jordan a couple of years ago to give him some
miles in our SunTrust Dallara. We did the same thing for Ricky at Putnam
Park a couple of years ago so we could evaluate where he was, and we
told Jordan we would do the same for him when we could. It was a good
day."